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5 January 2015

Dear Grace-Grace

I live in Amsterdam and, apart from the occasional screening of a classic film at a film theatre, there's not much happening here in terms of classic Hollywood films (we don't have a TCM festival, unfortunately). So a few days ago I was quite excited to go to Apeldoorn (East Netherlands) to see the exhibition "Grace Kelly, Princess and Style Icon". The exhibition had been travelling the world since 2007 and the beautiful Het Loo Palace in Apeldoorn was its final stop. Displayed at the exhibit were quite a few dresses worn by Grace Kelly as well as accessories (like the famous Hermès bag), photographs, film clips, the actual Oscar Grace had won for "Country Girl" and some of her personal correspondence. It was really great to see the original dresses she had worn in films like "To Catch a Thief" and "High Society" (although the blue dress from "High Society" had faded significantly, see image below), and to see an original Oscar up close was pretty cool too.

The focus of the exhibition was Grace Kelly's wardrobe. One of the dresses on show was her famous wedding dress (unfortunately not the original one but a replica). All photos by Menno Mulder Photography/ Het Loo Palace.

Naturally, I was quite anxious to check out Grace's personal correspondence, and to see if there was anything I might be able to use for this blog. There were several letters on show, amongst them love letters from prince Rainier, correspondence from royals like our former queen Beatrix and princess Diana, and a great letter from director Jean Negulesco regarding rules and dress code for the 1955 Oscar Ceremony. I would have liked to use Negulesco's letter for this post, but photography was not allowed (there was a permanent guard near the display case keeping me from sneakily taking photos). But, of course I wouldn't be writing this post if I didn't have a letter to show you. Searching the net I found a wonderful letter that was not on display in Apeldoorn, but had been on show at the McCord Museum in Montreal in 2013. The letter was presumably written by John Springer (Grace Kelly's press agent) warning Grace about Jack Nicholson who wanted to have "a closer-than-fan relationship" with her. Here goes:

As your Defender here in America, I must warn you that you are about to hear from Jack Nicholson. Nicholson insists on having a closer-than-fan relationship with you and hopes that you have seen some of his pictures.. which might give him an opportunity to write this personal note he has in mind.

Rest assured I have monitored the contents of the note, and have forbidden him to say anything fresh. If he needs to be chastized when you get the note, let me know and I'll give him sharp cracks across the knuckles.

I experience some twinge of jealousy in this whole affair, but at least he is sincere.

Much love

John (signed)

Note: Earlier I posted one of the love letters from Rainier that was displayed at the exhibit in Apeldoorn (read here).

Ha! What a great letter. Nicholson really did get around...or at least attempted to. I had no idea you lived in Amsterdam. We'll just have to rally to get some more movie-related shows to come your way.

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